Work-Place The Social Regulation of Labor Markets [Paperback]

This book challenges the prevailing idea that labor markets are governed by universal economic processes. The author argues instead that labor markets develop in tandem with social and political institutions, and thus function in locally specific ways. Drawing on a critical reading of segmentation and regulation theory, the book examines ways that the spatially uneven development of labor markets affects work structure, job security, and labor relations in different regions. Peck integrates labor market theory with empirical case studies, laying the theoretical groundwork for an alternative regulatory agenda which might deprioritize short-term cost-effectiveness in favor of social protection, improved working conditions, and negotiated worker involvement

This is an ambitious book, incorporating multilayered conceptualizations of local labor markets in ways that push beyond the explanations in neoclassical economic, labor segmentation, and regulation theory of their structures....a truly monumental achievement that is sure to redefine the course of current research in economic and industrial geography, as well as beyond the disciplinary boundaries. --Meghan Cope, Department of Geography, State University of New York at Buffalo,Journal of Regional Science

...Intelligent and intellectually rewarding...No labor market theorist, or researcher for that matter, can ignore this book. --R. A. Beauregard, New School for Social Research inChoice

Jamie Peck has written the definitive treatment of labor markets. His approach is at once quite original and provocative, integrating many threads and themes in the academic literature with a rare appreciation of the role that public policy plays (and does not play) in structuring the nature and performances of local labor markets. It is a book that all social scientists can read with profit; it is a book that will make an enormous difference to research in the field over the coming l³»